If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
U.S. report fails to link gun laws to violent crime
File under "Where's there's a will, there's a way," or "Wishing so ain't
gonna make it happen." www.reutershealth.com; Health eLine, 10/2/03 U.S. report fails to link gun laws to violent crime Last Updated: 2003-10-02 16:24:12 -0400 (Reuters Health) By Paul Simao ATLANTA (Reuters) - A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday found no conclusive evidence that gun control laws help prevent violent crime, suicides or accidental injuries in the United States. Critics of U.S. firearms laws, which are considered lax compared with those in most other Western nations, have long contended that easy access to guns have helped fuel comparatively high U.S. rates of murder and other violent crimes. Gun control is a perennial hot political issue in the United States, which reported 28,663 gun-related deaths in 2000, the latest year for which complete data are available. Firearms were the second leading cause of injury-related death that year. But a national task force of healthcare and community experts found "insufficient evidence" that bans on specific guns, waiting periods for gun buyers and other such laws changed the incidence of murder, rape, suicide and other types of violence. The findings were based on 51 studies, some partly funded by the CDC, of gun laws enacted in the mid-1970s and later. Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Health Department and head of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, said the studies were marked by unreliable data, inappropriate analysis and inconsistent findings, making it impossible to determine the true effectiveness of gun laws. "WE DON'T KNOW" "This means that we don't know what effects, if any, a law has on the outcome," Fielding said in a conference call. "We don't mean it has no effect, and that's why it's important to do more studies." One study found that the 1994 Brady Bill, which required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases until 1998 when a computerized checking system was introduced, significantly cut the rate of gun-related suicides in those under the age of 55. Several other studies, however, suggested that such declines were accompanied by smaller increases in suicide by other means. Officials with the National Rifle Association, a gun rights group that has accused the Atlanta-based CDC in the past of having an anti-gun slant, were not immediately available for comment on the report. The CDC, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is prohibited from using funds to promote gun control. HHS, however, is determined to reduce the rate of firearms-related deaths by about two-thirds by 2010. There are an estimated 200 million privately held rifles, handguns and other firearms in the United States, which guarantees the right to bear arms in its constitution. Approximately 4.5 million new firearms, including two million handguns, are sold each year in the nation. Secondhand firearms account for an additional 2 million to 4.5 million transactions annually. JG If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government --and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws. --Edward Abbey |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Chemically beating children: Pinellas Poisoners Heilman and Talley | Todd Gastaldo | Pregnancy | 0 | July 4th 04 11:26 PM |
Kids should work... | bobb | General | 108 | December 15th 03 03:23 PM |
Ex-medical student crime: MDs manipulate *baby's* spine when mother is suffering pain! | Todd Gastaldo | Pregnancy | 0 | August 23rd 03 10:21 PM |
[OT] What Is "Terrorism?" | Catherine Woodgold | General | 39 | August 10th 03 01:23 AM |
University hospitals as MD 'frat houses' (Will UCLA be first to stop mass MD vagina crime?) | Todd Gastaldo | Pregnancy | 0 | July 24th 03 04:39 PM |